Woman dies in fall from Center City apartment; pedestrian hurt

An 18-year-old Temple University student who may have been taking pictures from an eighth-floor Center City dorm room Thursday evening fell to her death and struck and injured a pedestrian on the sidewalk below, police said.

Shortly before 6 p.m., police responded to numerous 911 calls reporting that one or two people may have fallen from a building in the 100 block of South 16th Street, said Chief Inspector Scott Small.

They found two women lying next to each other on the sidewalk outside the H&M store at the high-traffic corner of 16th and Chestnut Streets, Small said.

The younger woman was transported by medics to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital with severe head trauma. She was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m.

Ray Betzner, spokesman for Temple University, confirmed that the younger woman was a first-year student. He did not release her name.

"Temple University is deeply saddened to learn of the death of one of our students in Center City Philadelphia. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends," Betzner said.

Counseling for Temple students was available at Tuttleman Counseling Services, he said, with more information at www.temple.edu/studentaffairs/counseling/.

The pedestrian "has a fractured vertebrae in her neck and some missing teeth," Small said.

The Temple student was visiting two male students in the Art Institute of Philadelphia dorm and was "leaning out the window or leaning over the ledge" when she fell, Small said.

She may have been taking photos with a mobile phone, he said.

"Preliminarily, we don't believe it was a suicide," Small said.

Detectives were questioning the two males and were waiting for the approval of a search warrant to examine the dorm room.

They also planned to review surveillance video from nearby businesses.

bmoran@phillynews.com

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@RobertMoran215